North Korea reiterated its strong opposition against the opening of a U.N. human rights office in Seoul via its state-controlled media, warning that the move has made the possibility of improved bilateral ties "hardly imaginable."
  
On Tuesday, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights opened a field office in Seoul as a means to monitor the human rights situation in North Korea. 
  
The Rodong Sinmun, an official newspaper of the North's ruling Communist Party of Korea, slammed the South for establishing the office.
  
"The puppet forces' hosting of such 'office' for confrontation in Seoul which no country in the world dared do is as a foolish an act as planting a time bomb in their house," the paper was quoted as saying in the English dispatch of the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency.
  
"Dialogue and improved relations between the north and the south can hardly be imaginable," it said, adding, "It is the steadfast will and determination of the DPRK to mercilessly punish those who are keen to hurt its dignity and social system."
  
The DPRK is the acronym of the communist country's official name: the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.
  
The editorial also denounced South Korea's President Park Geun-hye, emphasizing that the Park regime "remains unchanged in its black-hearted intention to escalate the confrontation" between the neighboring countries.
  
The criticism comes just two days after the North's Committee for the Peaceful Reunification released a similar statement condemning the new office, saying it will "mercilessly punish" South Korea and that there will be "catastrophic" consequences in Seoul-Pyongyang ties.
  
Pyongyang has long been deemed one of the worst human rights violators due to its political prison camps and forced isolation of its citizens from the outside world. An annual report by the U.S. State Department said the communist nation's human rights record "remained among the worst in the world" as of last year. (Yonhap)